The Real Economic Story
Dick Cheney sets the record straight about the economic successes of the Bush administration, in response to some of the reporting about Alan Greenspan's comments.
Watching the interview of Greenspan on Sunday night's "60 Minutes," I was surprised at how disdainfully Greenspan referred to every president he'd worked with besides President Clinton. He essentially called President Ford dumb but nice, and characterized President Reagan as having only, in essence, a "certain kind" of intelligence.
He criticized President George HW Bush for having tried to politicize the Federal Reserve, but then himself had no qualms about serving as an economic adviser to the Clinton team. The difference, perhaps, was that the first President Bush criticized Greenspan, while Clinton flattered him.
Could that, and his status as MSMer Andrea Mitchell's husband, explain much of his sweet words for Bill (and even Hillary) Clinton?
Watching the interview of Greenspan on Sunday night's "60 Minutes," I was surprised at how disdainfully Greenspan referred to every president he'd worked with besides President Clinton. He essentially called President Ford dumb but nice, and characterized President Reagan as having only, in essence, a "certain kind" of intelligence.
He criticized President George HW Bush for having tried to politicize the Federal Reserve, but then himself had no qualms about serving as an economic adviser to the Clinton team. The difference, perhaps, was that the first President Bush criticized Greenspan, while Clinton flattered him.
Could that, and his status as MSMer Andrea Mitchell's husband, explain much of his sweet words for Bill (and even Hillary) Clinton?
posted by LadybugUSA at 10:17 AM
4 Comments:
Having seen Bush standing on numerous piles of rubble claiming success, it seems he and last throes Cheney are pathological liars.
Ms. Liebau's suggestion that Mr. Greenspan was seduced by flattery is patently absurd. Mr. Greenspan has been around the block a few times; he knows a bit about the world and politicians. To suggest that this Reagan appointee and self-described "libertarian Republican" could be swayed by a few sweet nothings whispered into his ear is way silly.
Mr. Greenspan is widely esteemed as a top-notch economist. If he declares that Mr. Bush's economic policies were unwise, I think it better to acknowledge his opinion than to try to undermine his character in so childish a manner. You're welcome to disagree with the man, but calling into question his character is just plain dumb. You made a big stink about MoveOn attacking the character of Mr. Petraeus (and I agree that their attack was in poor taste). But now you do exactly the same thing with Mr. Greenspan that you decry MoveOn for doing with Mr. Petraeus. It seems that the only consistency in your commentary is partisanship.
I agree there's no need to impune anyone's character here. I think Dick Cheney handled the situation perfectly himself. He declared Greenspan to be a long time friend, pointed out a few areas in which he disagrees with Greenspan's assessment, then concluded that Greenspan is still his friend.
Doesn't sound much like the behavior of an all evil monster, does it?
I was just going through some economic figures today and thought that it might be useful to remind people of just how badly the US economy is doing. The growth rate of our GDP was 2.37% -- not bad but not especially good when you consider how some other countries are doing. Japan beat us with 2.78% growth. So did China, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Russia (at 7.00%) Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Taiwan, and Turkey, among many others. We did manage to beat Germany by 0.15%.
Of course, none of this addresses the steady decline of the dollar. My wife and I, realizing shortly after 2001 that the US economy was going into long-term decline, moved most of our investments overseas. Lo and behold, our investments are growing by leaps and bounds -- primarily because of the fall of the dollar. Betting against the American economy has proven to be one of our soundest financial decisions.
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